I write my books in my head, and not in a specific study with a view. The view is from my inner eyes.

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.

I'm not a prophet I can only use historical reality to come to a view of the future, and my view is that Africa will return to being African and not European. The advent of colonialism was foreign to the country itself, but it will return to what it was before the Europeans arrived.

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?

I wanted to be a great white hunter, a prospector for gold, or a slave trader. But then, when I was eight, my parents sent me to a boarding school in South Africa. It was the equivalent of a British public school with cold showers, beatings and rotten food. But what it also had was a library full of books.

I shot my first lion at the age of 14 when a pride threatened my father's livestock while he was away on holiday.